The company – which offers an extensive range of hygienic valves, plate heat exchangers, pumps, homogenizers and process systems designed for use in dairy, food, beverage, pharmaceutical and personal care production – says the expansion is part of its “continued commitment to excel in service, quality and delivery”.

Delta Electronics has launched a new series of programmable logic controllers which it claims enables “easy and advanced programming” for sectors such as electronics manufacturing, labeling, food packaging and textile machines.

The AS300 PLC series covers most automation applications at a very attractive price, says Delta.

Jonathan Wilkins, marketing director of EU Automation, looks at managing obsolete automation components in the factory of the future

In 10 years’ time robots will cease to be subservient/submissive, manufacturing won’t exist as we know it and we’ll be 3D printing our own clothes before we go out.

Do any of these sound like familiar predictions you’ve heard over the last five years? We thought so. With this in mind, we’ll tread lightly when talking about what the highly interconnected future has in store for industrial automation.

US President-elect Donald Trump reacts to a crowd gathered in the lobby of the New York Times building after a meeting in New York, US, November 22, 2016. Reuters/Lucas Jackson

The US automotive manufacturing industry is probably going through some angsty times right now, what with president-elect Donald Trump reiterating his campaign pledge to repeal or at least renegotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and any other free-trade deal previous administrations have signed up to.

For a highly globalised industry like the automotive sector, which sources parts from all over the world and may assemble its vehicles in any number of countries simultaneously based on a common platform, this is perhaps one election promise which it would rather not be kept.

However, Trump has already produced a presidential address style video in which he says: “I am going to issue a notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a potential disaster for our country.

“Additive manufacturing” is increasingly used interchangeably with “3D printing”, so they essentially mean the same thing. The only difference seems to be that “3D printing” is used more by maker communities – hobbyists and inventors – and still retains some sort of novelty value, whereas “additive manufacturing” – despite being the newer term – is more likely to be preferred in industry circles, perhaps because it has the sound of an established technology.

But it’s not really an “established” technology in the sense that it’s only been around for a relatively short time. According to 3DPrintingIndustry.com, it was only in 2007 that a 3D printer was available for less than $10,000 – from a company called 3D Systems, which is today one of the most well-known providers of the technology.